Company type | subsidiary of Microsoft |
---|---|
Industry | Telecommunication |
Founded | 1999 |
Headquarters | Mountain View, California |
Key people | Mike McCue, Chief executive |
Products | Telephone services and applications |
Number of employees | 360 (2008)[1] |
Tellme Networks, Inc. was an American company founded in 1999 by Mike McCue and Angus Davis,[2] which specialized in telephone-based applications. Its headquarters were in Mountain View, California.
Tellme Networks was acquired by Microsoft on March 14, 2007, for approximately $800 million; the deal closed in late April 2007.[3] In 2006, Tellme's phone network processed more than 2 billion unique calls.[4]
Tellme established an information number which provided time-of-day announcements, weather forecasts, brief news and sports summaries, business searches, stock market quotations, driving directions, and similar amenities. Operating by voice prompts and speech-recognition software, it was set up in 2000 as a loss-leader service to demonstrate the Tellme functionality to U.S. consumers. The voice of the Tellme service is Darby Bailey.[5]
In early 2012, Microsoft divested itself of Tellme Networks' interactive voice response (IVR) service and the majority of its employees to 24/7 Inc.[6] The service was moved to a non-toll-free number.